NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-12-2025 10AM EST

Episode Date: February 12, 2025

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Public media counts on your support to ensure that the reporting and programs you depend on thrive. Make a recurring donation today to get special access to more than 20 NPR podcasts. Perks like sponsor-free listening, bonus episodes, early access, and more. So start supporting what you love today at plus.npr.org. Live from NPR News, I'm Korova Coleman. American teacher Mark Fogel has been released from a Russian prison and has returned to the U.S. He was detained in 2021 for carrying medical marijuana. President Trump welcomed Fogel to the White House yesterday. Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff helped secure Fogel's release. Mark languished there for three and a half years and he shouldn't have.

He should have been out, you know, before. But he's out now, his family's grateful, he is as happy a human being as you're going to find, as the country will find out. And he's extraordinarily grateful to the president, our president, President Trump, and also to President Putin. He spoke to CNN. Russia says that in exchange, the U.S. has released a Russian citizen who has been imprisoned in the U.S.

It is not known publicly who that person is. The Trump administration is slashing the budget of the General Services Administration in half. Those cuts could affect nearly all federal properties and contracts. NPR's Jenna McLaughlin reports that's according to sources who spoke to NPR on condition of anonymity fearing further retribution from the Trump administration. The General Services Administration manages federal real estate across the country as well as nearly all federal contracts. Without it,

federal agencies would have a lot of trouble buying things and providing essential public services. However, GSA employees have been told their budget is being cut by 50%, spread across contracts, leases, and personnel salaries. Employees who remain and who don't take a deferred resignation offer will be subject to heightened surveillance, including installation of what's called a keylogger, software that tracks everything the user types. It could be the model for the rest of the federal government going forward. Jen McLaughlin, NPR News. Stocks opened sharply lower this morning as the Labor Department reported higher than

expected inflation last month. NPR's Scott Horsley reports the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled more than 380 points in early trading. Forecasters had expected to see some moderation in price hikes last month, but inflation remained stubbornly high. Consumer prices in January were up 3 percent from a year ago. Prices rose by half a percent between December and January alone. Egg prices jumped more than 15 percent last month after avian flu forced egg farmers to cull millions of laying hens in December. Overall, grocery prices were up by half a percent. Stripping out food and energy prices, which bounce around a lot, core inflation was also

higher than forecasters had expected. Given the sticky price hikes, the Federal Reserve is expected to take its time before making any additional cuts to interest rates. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is threatening to resume hostilities in Gaza if Hamas does not release three hostages by Saturday. That's supposed to be in accordance with the ceasefire. This week, Hamas had said it was delaying the hostages' release and then blamed Israel for violating the ceasefire. It's NPR.

The White House has fired the Inspectorfire. It's NPR. The White House has fired the Inspector General of the agency USAID. That happened one day after Inspector General Paul Martin's office released a critical report on President Trump's work to dismantle the agency. The report says this makes it pretty much impossible for the agency to monitor more than $8 billion in unspent humanitarian aid. That means the aid could fall into the wrong hands. Most countries have missed a key United Nations deadline to submit plans to fight climate change.

NPR's Julia Simon reports only a few countries made it on time. As part of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, nearly 200 countries agreed to submit targets for reducing their climate pollution by 2035. The hope is that all these cuts combined will limit the world's warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit. Earlier this week was the deadline for countries to submit these targets. Only a dozen countries met the deadline. One of those countries was the U.S.

The U.S. submitted a climate target right before Biden left office. Trump then pulled the U.S. out of the Paris agreement. The hard deadline is in September. Climate experts say they'll be especially looking to see how ambitious China and the European Union are with their cuts to climate pollution. Julia Simon, NPR News. Forecasters say another winter storm is going to pummel much of the U.S. The National Weather Service says heavy snow will fall from the central plains into the Great Lakes and New England by Friday. In the south, the danger is from thunderstorms and heavy rain. Forecasters say there's a risk of hail and even tornadoes across much of the southeast.

This is NPR News.